Talk Morgan Forums Community The Malvern Arms The 11th Hour of the 11th Day

The wife's uncle recently passed away and had never been keen on talking about what he did in the war. In the last few years he told my son more about his exploits than most of the family although they did have some ideas about what he had been up to.

He served in the Marines most of the time but was allocated special duties. He did tell me about the time prior to D-Day when he was assigned to body guard a boffin as they were landed on the French beaches to take a close look at the German radar and nearly got caught, and that how when he came back with the boffin in civvies he was spat at as an objector.

He recounted to my son once that immediately after the invasion he had his picture taken on standing on a V2 to 'give it some scale' by the same Boffin.

I'm sure he did much more but now we will never find out.

Adding another story to the photo above. Before my mother met my father, she had another boyfriend who's name or nationality I have never been able to establish. He wrote the comment below the photo. He gave my mother the photo album containing photos of warships. The cover is brown suede and he drew a picture of HMS HOOD in silver on the outer front cover.

Inside most of the photos are missing now with the exeption of the one above and a few others of HMS Hood taken from another ship where the stormy seas are so high, only the mast and parts of the superstructure are visible.

There are some great pics of her 'Night Shoot', but most strangly, there are other individual pictures of some of the famous German Battleships in the German Navy. It always intregued me where these photos came from.

On the HMS Hood website I found other pics posted by the families of people lost on her and many have some of the same photos that I have. I still do not know how they each got their copies. It was suggested by the HMS Hood Society that the unknown boyfriend may have been serving on HMS Hood when he met my mother.

The last of the Survivors of the sinking, Ted Briggs, who died in October 2008 also came from Fareham in Hampshire, my mother's home town where I grew up. He was only 18 when she sank and he survived with two others.

Ted Briggs said he survived because he was trapped in an underwater air pocket and eventually was pulled from the freezing water.

The picture above also appears in the book 'Flagship Hood' I have which Ted Briggs wrote about life on board the ship.

Another of life's mysteries

I have "had a go" at the submarine photo, using photoshop, with the following result:



Nigel

Nigel,

I cannot express my thanks to you enough for taking the trouble to repair this beaten up photo of my father in his warship.

I will be sending a copy to the Curator at the Submarine Museum at HMS Dolphin Gosport Hants. (where my father was based during the war), as they did not have a copy of this photo.

I will attach a credit to it in your name for repairing it so magnificently.

Frank

Thanks Frank, i have loved looking at the submarine photo, especially as i was a submariner myself for 16 years, leaving the service in 2005. I conducted my initial submarine training at HMS Dolphin, returning every 3 years to re-qualify in the tank (100 feet tall submarine escape tank). I spent most of my time at the marine engineering college at HMS Sultan or at the Clyde Submarine Base Faslane. I served on HMS Repulse, Splendid and Spartan, i loved every minute of it and only left to spend more time with the family. Fortunately the Merchant Navy is a little better paid or i wouldn't be able to afford my +8.
Is Jeff Tall still the curator at the HMS Dolphin museum? It would be a fantastic location for a meeting at some point next year!!!!!

Ahh,
That would explain the Helensburgh and A82 mentioned in another thread.

I occasionally get to visit that large base near Garelochhead.

Sadly, my MN days are long since numbered - Radio Officers lost out to SatCom and lots of other automated & semi automated comms gear. Spent 15 or so years with various shipping companies, both UK and abroad. Miss the money. Miss the travel, but I believe things are a lot harder now since the likes of 9/11...

Cheers,

Hi Graham, fortunately not in my line of work (very large private yachts) the industry is currently struggling to find crew, despite the economic down turn there are still billions of Euros of large yachts (bigger than 50 meters) built every year for which deckhands, stewardesses and engineers are required.

As you can imagine a big change from a submarine!!!!

Nice!
Perhaps I'd better learn to throw a rope and swab decks!

Cheers,

Or wear a skirt and serve drinks!!!!

I don't think so somehow...
The beard might be a bit of a giveaway

Cheers.